All Sorts
December 08, 2003 - 9:17 a.m.
Whoo. What a weekend. Marlee was an extreme case! Thursday night/Friday morning she ended up in bed with us, just for sanity's sake, I needed sleep. Friday night/Saturday morning was the same thing. Saturday she spent most of the day screaming and turning various shades of purple. At one point, after about 3 straight hours, we thought we'd have to take her to Urgent Care. Not even a bath, which is her favorite thing in the world, would settle her down. We finally set the bassinet up in our room and got her to sleep in there. ALL NIGHT. Which is the first time since going back to work. Sunday she woke up in a much better mood, and we spend the day cuddling and playing. She grabbed one of her toys for the first time! She started punching it with her right hand, and finally reached out to it with her left hand, grabbing it closer so she could continue punching it with her right. Too funny. All of a sudden she is enthralled with this toy, and all her toys seem to be sooo much more interesting than they were before. She even paid attention to the book that I read her last night.
I noticed that she's been talking less, she really hasn't used as much of her voice since she's been sick, I wonder if the sore throat has anything to do with that. I think she's finally better, last night when putting her to bed (which was a nightmare!) I had to suction out her nose. So like I said, it was impossible getting Marlee to sleep last night...we did the usual routine and plopped her in her crib, but she just kept waking up. Her nose was stuffy, so since her bassinet has a slight incline, we pulled it in from our room and got her set up in there. I had to take her out and feed her a few times, but finally after swaddling her up (which I thought we were way past), she fell asleep, snoring loudly but peacefully. She slept that way until I had to wake her up this morning to get her ready for daycare. I hate having to wake her when she is sleeping so soundly!
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So my MIL has been pretty cool lately, I can't say I have any real personality conflicts with her as of late except for the fact that I asked for her help with Marlee's baptism and she's done nothing. You know, when someone complains that you never ask them for help, and you finally do and they drop the ball...well it's any wonder. See, Tim and I are so-called Agnostics. He was baptized Congregational and I was baptized Catholic. We are as far from either religion as you can be. As I was growing up, I had a lot of questions (please no offense) to which every Catholic answer was, "That is a sin, you are a sinner." So at a much younger age than most, I proclaimed myself un-Catholic and set out to find my own religion. I learned a lot about all of the religions and dabbled in Buddhism and Witchcraft and came back to the same place I have always been: A non-believing believer. I have a personal relationship with an entity out there, a God or Goddess, but I really don't put much faith in organized religion as it has steered me in the wrong path. Tim is the same way, though a little more fanatical about NOT believing.
Truthfully, I feel that religion and God and the ritual are very important for a child's development. It teaches them to trust in something that they can't see, and it relieves them of being 100% responsible for their feelings while being 100% responsible for their actions. I intend to provide Marlee with all the information that she should need to make her own decision regarding her beliefs, while remaining comfortable in my own.
In order to start the process right, I need to have her baptized. No particular religion. I don't want her cleansed of her sins...because at this point I believe her to be an innocent through and through, but I would like her blessed and welcomed into the arms of God. If, God forbid, anything were to happen to her, I'd feel more at peace knowing she'd have a place to go should there be one waiting for her.
Before I go off on that tangent, I'll get back to the point I was making. Being that Tim and I are not members of any church and don't plan to become members any time soon, we are having a problem finding a place to have this done. All the non-denominational churches here are a little on the wacko side...given to throw up their arms and shake as if having a seizure or a 3-ring circus act. For just starting out, we'd like something a little more demure and loving, accepting of all beliefs. I can't believe there aren't more places out there like what we are looking for.
As a second resort, we agreed to have the blessing done in any church that our families are affiliated with, that includes Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian. I'd prefer Lutheran overall, but I am not being picky. At this point it just needs to be done.
I enlisted MIL to help because when polling family members over the importance of this ritual, she had the strongest feelings that it needed to be done. (My grandma, bless her heart, licked her thumb, made a cross on Marlee's forehead, and called it done. Now that's the way to do it.) It looked as though we'd have to go Methodist, as our "affiliations" with certain churches have dissolved (my grandma stopped believing and my mother was ex-communicated). A snag was hit when the pastor at the Methodist church wanted us to take classes to become Methodist before he would perform the ceremony...and since that's not going to happen....well, MIL said she was going to look into some other avenues but she hasn't. I am not asking for her to take care of it all, but I thought she would do more than just ask one minister and call it quits. This is a big thing, and something she wanted done right away, so I am surprised at her lack of helping.
This morning I sent out an email to all my family asking them for ideas, suggestions... basically if she doesn't want to help, she lost the job.
But I gotta get this done - by the New year!
Pictures
December 06, 2003 - 8:03 p.m.
Long Winded Update
December 06, 2003 - 8:02 p.m.
So today I had to say something to the daycare lady, because I am sick of getting up at night with a baby that just doesn't want to sleep.
See, I know Marlee has the capacity and the ability to sleep through the night, 9 hours at a time. Before daycare she was relatively consistant, 4-5 times a week.
Since daycare started, she's bucked going to sleep and wakes 1-2 times a night. It's hard when you're not working, but let me mention that it's almost impossible when you are working.
This week she has been sick and stuffy, and I know I have done everything to make her comfortable, and she'd most likely benefit from the good sleep overnight, and there's no reason for her to be waking.
Marlee should be fairly well adjusted at daycare now, so her sleeping and eating habits should be regulating. But from what I've seen, she's sleeping 3-5 hours at a time and only eating 6 oz in 9 hours. Maybe that is normal for some almost 3 month olds, but not Marlee. When I was home with her, she was awake and eating all day, so by bedtime she had her fill of food and awake time and slept really well. She's been that way since we moved her into her own room and I liked it that way.
So I just mentioned to Sheila that she needed to eat a little more during the day and hopefully that would mean she wouldn't let her sleep as much.
She got 9oz in her and asked if every 2.5-3 hours was ok for a feeding schedule. I had originally asked her to feed on cue, but now I think a schedule is best. We don't really feed on cue anymore at home, Marlee's rooting reflex is all but gone, and if I think enough time has gone by between feedings I offer. She takes if she's hungry and fusses if she's not.
We'll see tonight if this new thing makes a difference.
Marlee's been without her Zantac for almost a week now. I didn't know if it was making a huge impact on her reflux, but I ordered her prescrip online and it took forever to ship here. So the last couple of days she's been really fussy and fighting with something, tonight she's been vomiting non-stop, huge curdled, mucousy messes. She's crying in pain and you can see her working the acid up before it pours out of her mouth. I bet if I held a bottle under her mouth, I could catch 2 oz at a time. She spits up about 10 times between feedings, no exaggeration.
So the Zantac is definitely making a difference...and it arrived in the mail today so hopefully after a few doses, she'll be better. I hope so, I hate to see her in pain.